Gaylord harriers grind it out in opening BNC race

TRAVERSE CITY — The Gaylord cross-country team traveled to Traverse City West on Tuesday to tackle the first Big North Conference meet of the season.

In a tough league, the GHS boys took fourth and the girls placed sixth.

“Traverse City Central is incredibly tough,” said Gaylord coach Jeff Kalember. “T.C. West is pretty good, too, and so is Alpena.”

For Gaylord, the boys hung in enough with the tough competition to earn fourth with 90 points, just eight points away from third-place Alpena, which finished with 82.

“Charlend Howard (16:55) had a great race to finish third overall,” Kalember said. “He was just a few tenths of a second from two T.C. Central boys who have already run in the low (16 minutes). This should be a great confidence booster for Charlend.”

The Blue Devil girls’ squad collected some improving times on its way to a sixth-place finish.

“The girls had two hurt and not up to speed yet, but many of the girls ran personal best times,” Kalember said.

Central also took the girls’ race, collecting the first six places on its way to a perfect score of 15 points.

Gaylord was led by Katelynn Dreyer (21:52) in 17th place and Ellen Seidell (22:30) in 23rd. Geena Duff (22:41) placed 24th. Maria Warren (24:06) at 38th and Grace Porta (24:25) at 42nd finished off the scoring.

“Sixth place of seven is not where we’d like to be, but it is what it is, and we’ll just keep doing what we always do and improve and run our best at the end of the season,” Kalember said. “We can beat Petoskey and Cadillac, and that’s our goal for Regionals.”

Both teams are in action today (Saturday) at the Delta Invitational meet at Delta College.